ESPN3 to Cover Eight Harvard Sporting Events in 2014-15

Continuing trends in previous years that saw Harvard sporting events aired on national television, ESPN3 and Harvard will continue to broadcast select Crimson games and matches for the 2014-15 school year. So if you have a subscription for ESPN with your cable company and can type “WatchESPN.com” into your browser, have at it on one, two, or all of the dates listed below.

In case you’re one of those people with a dire allegiance to the year-old Ivy League Digital Network, not to fear—ESPN3 will be picking up the broadcasts from the Ancient Eight sports provider, guaranteeing that when you watch Harvard basketball, football, ice hockey, and/or lacrosse, you can have the peace of mind that the broadcast is being produced in-house at Harvard.

With seven home tilts involving seven Harvard programs, there’s sure to be at least one if not more out there that will catch your Crimson-loving eye. Here’s the complete list, with a breakdown of some of the notable occasions:

Oct. 17, 2014 – Men’s Basketball “Crimson Madness” – 6 p.m. 
Nov. 29, 2014- Men’s Basketball vs. Massachusetts – 2 p.m.

“Crimson Madness” and its dunk contest and three-point contest should draw some curious fans looking to see junior Agunwa Okolie throw down another 360 jam. This is also the first chance many will get to see how newcomers Andre Chatfield, Chris Egi, and Zach Yoshor match up with and against the upperclassmen. Further down the schedule, Harvard takes on UMass for the first time in Crimson basketball history. The Minutemen were a six seed at the 2014 NCAA tournament, falling to 11th-seeded Tennessee in the first round.

Jan. 31, 2015 – Women’s Basketball vs. Penn – 6 p.m.

The Crimson hopes to avenge last season’s two defeats at the hands of the Quakers and would especially like to forget its 67-38 loss this past February, which saw Harvard shoot an abysmal 13-of-71 from the field. However, the Crimson rattled off four straight Ivy League wins to close out 2013-14 conference play and will be looking to continue the upward trend.

Feb. 3, 2015 – Women’s Ice Hockey vs. Boston University (Beanpot Semifinal) – 8 p.m.

Kind of hard to call it a “semifinal” when it’s still technically the first game of the four-team Beanpot. Kind of like saying a team came in the top-ten when there were only 11 teams. Either way, this should be some quality hockey from the two New England squads, although teams coached by Katey Stone have won 13 Beanpot titles while BU coach Brian Durocher is stuck at one. Harvard won last season’s consolation title against the Terriers in OT, 3-2.

Feb. 14, 2015 – Men’s Ice Hockey vs. Cornell – 7 p.m.

Men’s ice hockey has some upward climbing to do after a 10-17-4 overall 2013-14 record. That could be helped by the Crimson bringing back 20 players and only losing four to graduation.

April 4, 2015 – Men’s Lacrosse vs. Cornell – TBA
April 11, 2015 – Women’s Lacrosse vs. Penn - TBA

Not sure why ESPN3 would reduce its coverage from seven to just two this year, especially with the men’s team recording a 7-1 home record last season and the women’s squad checking in with a solid 5-3 showing as well. Regardless, Harvard will hope for another drubbing of the Big Red like the 14-9 score of last year’s matchup.

And as a bonus for all you statistics concentrators out there: way back in the 2010-11 season when the Ivy League had three men’s basketball games picked up by on ESPN3 in one of the earliest examples of a possible partnership, “a combined 85,017 unique viewers—13,494 for the March 5 Princeton at Harvard game; 17,074 for the March 8 Princeton at Penn game; and 54,449 for the March 12 Harvard-Princeton playoff game in New Haven, Conn.” tuned into ESPN3 for the broadcasts. Not too shabby a showing for the Ancient Eight.